Salt
Novelists who traded on the Cold War to spin fictional spy yarns must have wept when it ended. No more would their cutting edge topical stories be able to tap into ‘reds under the beds’ paranoia with such thoughts consigned to history. Fortunately for them Hollywood refuses to let go of the past with Salt playing up the threat of KGB Russians to the hilt. With energetic acrobatics its driving force, it shows how discarded ideals still hold weight when it comes to mindless escapism.
CIA Agent Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) is a highly skilled officer. Respected by her peers and boss Ted Winter (Live Schreiber), her abilities are tested by the defection of a Russian spy. Interrogating him, Salt learns of an operation called ‘Day X’ which involves political assassination and the seizing of nuclear weapons. When he unexpectedly implicates her in the plot, she goes on the run. Chased by her former colleagues and Agent Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor), Salt races to clear her name and prevent her country from becoming the centre-point of an explosive Armageddon.
Despite its awful title and highly implausible script, Salt manages to become a pure adrenaline rush. Ignoring its many plot holes, both director Phillip Noyce and star dive into proceedings with gusto. As she kicks some serious butt, Noyce seems only too happy to assist her exploits by creating various ‘locked-room’ scenarios from which she must escape. This is probably the best part of the entire enterprise as he allows viewers to see the action and ensure everyone joins the intrepid heroine until the end.
The threat of sleeper agents suddenly awakening to cause havoc is well utilised, as you’re never quite sure who are the true heroes and villains. Like any good spy caper, the double crosses and race to stop the emerging threat are all part of the fun. What’s particularly pleasing is Salt must use her wits instead of gadgets to escape her pursuers – thereby showing the genuine intelligence underneath the tough exterior.
Owing more than a passing nod to the James Bond films, Salt is pretty good nonsense if one doesn’t take it too seriously. It isn’t a thinking person’s espionage thriller – just a wild ride to the finish line done in the style Hollywood does best.
Rating out of 10: 7
Matching Jack
Australian cinema has endured a rough time in the last few years. Whilst the quantity of productions hasn’t been the issue, the quality has been. Many have shone with much promise only to deliver patchy versions of what might have been. Matching Jack is no different as, despite flashes of inspired dramatics, it eventually toddles along in the wasteland of lukewarm local films.
Learning her son Jack (Tom Russell) has leukaemia, Marisa’s (Jacinda Barrett) also deals with the discovery of her husband David’s (Richard Roxburgh) extra-marital affairs. Wanting to care for her son whilst containing her fury at David’s transgressions, she turns this to her advantage when the possibility he may have fathered another child surfaces. Hopeful of finding a potential bone marrow donor as she confronts his many mistresses, her plight is helped by Connor (James Nesbitt). Father of a son suffering from the same affliction, his positive attitude provides solace to both in the dark days ahead.
It’s very difficult making such a serious subject entertaining. Where tackling such complicated issues in a simple manner enables a better understanding of the character’s traumas, very few movies have found the right tonal balance. Matching Jack takes its more light-hearted route to its extreme with some preposterous scenarios diluting any ounce of believability. With patients freely walking out of hospital, rooms filled with burning candles and beds turned into boats, the sacrifice of logic in favour of coy cuteness makes a mockery of the very topic it’s meant to convincingly convey.
Despite this frustrating unevenness, some aspects save it from being a total wash-out. Whenever it focuses on the young boy’s struggles it effectively articulates the desperation of adult and child in finding a cure for such a horrible disease. Their sense of hope provides the strength needed to see them through their terrible ailments, with the actors contributing good performances. It’s a shame they’re lumbered with such a bad screenplay as its reliance on convenient contrivances ruins much of their good work.
Matching Jack should have been much better than it is. Whilst its central theme is engaging, the rest is a shambles with some abysmal writing lacking the courage of its convictions. For every good local film there’s a mediocre one with this joining the less than illustrious list of parochial disappointments.
Rating out of 10: 4